Don’t build your coaching website til you do THIS
Listen up, new coaches and service-type businesses!
Before you even think about spending hours on building a fancy website, let’s get one thing straight: building a solid client base is the backbone of a thriving life coaching biz.
If you don’t have clients, you don’t really have a business.
And guess what?
A website is NOT the fastest way to get clients.
Yep, that’s right.
Most people equate “launching their business” to publishing their website. But these are NOT the same thing (and having a website does not make you a business owner).
I firmly believe that you should be working with paying clients BEFORE you build a website.
Here’s why:
1. Better language
You’ll gain a deeper understanding of your clients’ needs and challenges, which will give you invaluable language and examples to use on your website. Writing your website before working with enough clients is like trying to write a recipe for a meal you haven’t made yet. You’re sort of just using your best guess. But once you dive in with real clients, you will learn SO much about your niche, and the copy (ie. the words) you put on your website will be SO much more specific and be able to speak directly to your people. THIS is what makes a website work as a client-getting machine (it actually has nothing to do with the design, color choices, photos, or logo you choose)
2. Testimonials and social proof
Your first few clients can be your biggest cheerleaders, serving as testimonials and what we call “social proof” for future clients. Everyone wants to know that what they are investing in has helped other people. Testimonials will literally do the selling for you. Getting glowing reviews with really specific stories about how your clients lives have changed will be super important for your new site.
3. Better packages
Working with clients will provide you with valuable feedback on what’s working and what’s not, so you can make changes to your coaching packages to make sure they are hitting the nail on the head of what your clients want and need. Without this testing in real life, you’re likely just going to throw up generic packages that don’t really do your work justice. Once you have tested your packages with at least 5 clients, you will have SUCH a better idea of how long you want to work with people, how to structure your sessions, and what kinds of results your clients get from your coaching packages.
4. Higher prices
You’ll set your rates higher than you would have if you didn’t work with clients before publishing your site. This is almost guaranteed! I see this happen all the time with our students in Uncage Your Business. Once you have worked with clients and seen the real world results of your coaching, your confidence will go through the roof. Not only will you be in a better position to sell your coaching when you do a consult call, you will also feel so much more confident about putting a higher price tag on your packages because you have seen the results.
5. Save time
You’ll save yourself a ton of time by focusing on getting clients first. Most new businesses spend too much time tinkering with their website, and trying to make it perfect, as a procrastination strategy. There is often a lot of fear in making yourself visible as a new coach or business owner, and playing behind the scenes is a way for your brain to keep itself safe. Trying to perfect your website, spending too much time obsessing over the perfect colors, the perfect photos, the perfect logo, is a way of trying to protect yourself from judgment. If it can all be perfect, then no one will judge you…. Right? Unfortunately, that is simply not true, and all of this tinkering behind the scenes is costing you time that you could spend out there actually working with clients.
Now, I am sure your next question is “But how do I get those first paying clients without a website?”
Don’t you need your website to tell people what you are doing, to have something to share publicly, and for a way for people to find you?
NOPE!
I mean, yes, eventually your website will be a fantastic tool for sharing your work and helping people find you. but when you are new to business, it’s not like thousands of people come flocking to your website once you hit publish. Usually we share it with our friends and family, they give us a high five, and then we are left wondering what the hell we’re supposed to do next.
You can fill your first client spots without a website, and even without anything tangible to share. If you do feel like you need something written down, you can always outline what you do, what kinds of problems you help your clients with, and your package details and pricing in a simple Google doc.
Here are some ways to get those first clients without a website:
- Ask the folks you did your market research with to be your clients (you did do that market research, right!?). Those people have just shared their struggles and desires with you, and you literally used that data to create your packages (right!?). They are perfect candidates to be your next client! If you are unclear on how the market research process works or how to pitch to these people, we walk you through all of it in our Uncage Your Business program.
- Network like a boss: Attend industry events, join coaching groups, and connect with other coaches and business owners on social media (this is the one thing I love social media for!). Telling people what you do (and getting very comfortable talking about it!) is a great way to get the word out. This works best when you are specific and clear about your niche and what you help people with.
- Leverage your personal network: Ask family, friends, and acquaintances if they know anyone who could benefit from what you offer. In Uncage Your Business we give you a “Friends and Family” email template to help you CLEARLY tell everyone you know what you are up to now and ask for referrals in a non-spammy way.
- Offer free sessions: People love free stuff! Offer a limited number of free coaching sessions to attract your first clients. One of my coaches did this when she started her business and she offered 100 free sessions (in a very clear and specific niche with a focus of what they were going to work on in that session!)! She built up mega buzz for her business during that time and got amazing at coaching in her niche, so much that she was able to fill all her paid client spots before she even finished the free sessions. The key here is to offer incredible value during that session and NOT turn it into a sales pitch. IF the person you coach is a good fit to be your client, you can let them know that and offer them a spot in a follow up email after your session.
- Partner with other businesses that have a similar niche but do different things: Reach out to them to let them know that you serve a similar audience and would love to connect to learn more about what they do so you can send people their way who are not a fit for your work. Schedule a short call with them to get to know each other and genuinely find out who their best client is so you can send people there. They will of course ask what you do and how they can support you. It’s a win-win. I do this all the time with business coaches who serve different kinds of businesses, or businesses at different stages, or who offer different services than I offer to the same type of clients (ie. a copywriter might send clients to me if she sees that they still need their foundations nailed down before she can work with them, and I send my clients to copywriters all the time as a next step)
- Get social: Admittedly this is NOT my favorite strategy for NEW business owners, but it can be useful if you do it right. Use social media platforms to go on video and share your message. Use the rant exercise – a strategy we teach in Uncage Your Business to help you learn to share your point of view about your coaching topic in a way that gets people’s attention. Talk about why people struggle with X thing, why what they have tried hasn’t worked, and what they can do instead to help make change. If you have done your market research well, you will be speaking the exact language of your target clients and they will be VERY interested in what you have to say. Don’t forget to drop a line in there about how many spots you have open for clients and tell them to slide into your DMs with one word or with an emoji for more info.
Getting clients should be your #1 priority as a new business owner, so I want you to cut to the chase and get to it, without letting a website bog you down and hold you up from doing the real work in your business!
Your website is going to speak to your ideal clients SO MUCH BETTER after you have worked with at least 5 people in your niche, so make that your goal before sitting down to create your site.
Want help getting clear on your niche and your offers so that you can get clients faster? This is literally what we do all year long in Uncage Your Business – check it out at UncageYourBusiness.com, and you can always DM me on Instagram to share more about your business so I can give you some feedback!
